We propose to test our current hypotheses concerning HVH latency and recurrence in humans and as a secondary objective further prospectively describe the clinical epidemiology of genital HVH. Among patients with primary genital HVH only 30% sebsequently recrudesced contrasted with 60% recrudescence in HVH-2 patients. We plan to recruit and follow additional primary disease patients to expand our data base and to determine the effect of covariables also associated with recrudescence, race, age, sexual behavior, and cell mediated immunity. We have also seen that only 10% of primary HVH-1 patients had detectable anti-HVH antibody compared to 90% of primary HVH-2 patients. We wish to see if preexisting anti-HVH antibody protects against type 1 or 2 clinical disease and to examine other variables which may interact to influence this. We know that asymptomatic HVH in fection occurs and may preceed clinical recrudescence. By weekly culturing of couples who suffer recurrent episodes we can evaluate the relative frequency of asymptomatic vs. symptomatic genital recurrences in men and women. Lastly, we plan to test the hypothesis that recurrent genital herpes depends upon a mechanism of antigenetic drift. We will look for subtle antigenic differences using serial isolates from individual patients, serial sera from patients and rabbit anti-HVH against specific serial isolates.